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Chicken Paws?

For Dog Lovers Only....

I"m considering putting my dogs on a BARF diet (BARF = Bones and Raw Food). For many reasons, but the practical one is that we just moved from a home on four acres to a home on 4620 sqft and, well, dog poop is accumulating very quickly! I've heard that on a BARF diet, there isn't really much poop to deal with and what there is pretty much evaporates. TMI? Oh well...

Okay, so I'm in Super Wal-Mart today, looking for suitable BARF food and I see something called Chicken Paws. Uh, yeah, it's chicken feet, toenails and all! But it's only $.83, so I figure, why not? I think the pups would like them - they'll eat anything!

I was kind of embarrassed checking out with my chicken feet, but the checkout lady didn't bat an eye, so what do I know?

Well, the dogs love their chicken paws.

Anyone else doing BARF?

Jennifer Allan

www.CharmingOldDenver.com

Posted by Jennifer Allan on 01/25/2008 07:02 PM

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26 Comments on Chicken Paws?

JAN

2008

Do the dogs eat the chicken paws in their entirety or do they just gnaw on them? I have never seen or heard of buying them. I am going to check into that BARF diet. We have a one year old puppy that "cleans up" our older dogs poop so that may be a way to stop that! I spoke with our vet yesterday and he had me by some Deter pills to give our older dog that will make her poop taste worse (is that possible?) and keep the puppy from cleaning up. Was THAT TMI?! *smile*

Ate the whole thing... fingernails and all (as far as I can tell). I'm a holistic freak, so I would say that if your puppy is eating poop, he's missing something in his diet and that should be addressed (instead of simply messing with the older dog's diet).

I've always fed my dogs people food (and often raw), but in the last few months I've switched to an organic kibble. The poop is amazingly abundant! Which, to me, means they're not utilizing most of the food.

I also bought some turkey necks which we'll try tomorrow. My fear? that they'll "save" some of their dinner for later; maybe under my bed!

Holy cow, Jenn.... I think if i brought Chicken Paws home, my human family would well FARF... Hmmm:-)
Both of mine have been on Nutro... Started on Science diet and had to switch at a recommend form a vet, since both of mine had skin problems... Apparently, the breed is prone to that. Anyway, between Nutro and tables scraps - they are two happy waggy canines, but there is definitely the poop factor, which i would consider if I din't have a teenagers whose chores consist of cleaning it up. A happy full circle on my end. If you find an unbreakable bone of some kind in your travels though, PLEASE let me know.

:-)

EVO is a good alternative to pure raw. You will never find it in Wal-Mart though. Google it and read up on it. You will have the small stools qthat you are looking for. Getting the blance right with raw is a science.

My cousin used the BARF diet for her dogs, for some reason, my mom was horrified by it (but mom never thought twice about pouring bacon grease on her dog's food!)

I have just switched to Iams dog food because my dog developed a horrible skin allergy, she was chewing and chewing and chewing, constantly. Had all of her beautiful fur matted and ugly looking. Hubby heard an ad on the radio for dog vitamins (dinovites?) and I was astonished at the price (about $50 a month for my dog.)

I thought maybe switching to a premium food would do the trick, and it did...but I never really thought about the barf diet at all. I'm sure Mindy would LOVE it, as she comes out to beg whenever she hears me open the fridge or scrape a plate...

JAN

2008

Karen, pretty much all dog food you can find in a regular supermarket including Premiums like Iams contains certain additives that a very large number of dogs don't digest well as well as things that they are allergic to. Premium usually simply means better cuts of meat, but the additives are still all there. It is also the case for some other brands, including the stuff i use (Nutro), but they have special skin forumulas which do not contain any of those fillers (usually soy, wheat, corn meal etc)... I went through all kinds of treatments for my oldest dog (he was chewing and losing his fur and all the other yucky stuff) for a year before we switched his food, and he's been fine ever since (and that's after multiple vets and creams and pills and shots of cortisone). Not to advise you against Iams or anything; just sharing what i learned going through this process... There are brands that can only be found in pet stores and feed stores that do address the skin issue successfully, and I would guess just make for healthier pets. They are more expensive than the most expensive premium you can buy in a regular store, but because there no fillers - your dog won't eat nearly as much of it, hence won't poop nearly as much of it out as well.:-)
Jenn, sorry for highjacking your post-

Gayle - I will look up EVO. Thanks!

Karen & Inna - Yeah, when I read the ingredients on the majority of dog food bags, i'm horrified. Baba can't eat store-brand kibble - her poor little tummy swells up to twice its size and until she vomits, she can barely move. For convenience, I've been feeding them a very expensive organic kibble for the last few months that has ZERO fillers, but now with the poop thing... Besides, I don't think that dogs should be forced to eat the same thing day after day - they need variety just like we do! When you read about how dog food came to be, it makes ya think....

Do I even want to click that link....I usually don't like stories that tell "how stuff was first made." LOL

I read somewhere that mascara was invented by a pharmacist, who created it for his sister. It was made up of petroleum jelly (vaseline) and of all things...soot.

His sister's name was Mabel, and thus, he named it Mabelline. Don't know if it's an urban legend or not...but I have a feeling that it's a much more pleasant story than the dog food one...

Thanks Jenn - I suspected as much about the dog food. As I said, it just never occurred to me to put Mindy on a BARF diet. I'm going to investigate it further.

Day Two on the BARF diet... so far so good. Pups had turkey necks for breakfast - met with their full approval - and canned salmon and a turkey neck for dinner. Haven't checked out the poop situation, but they're definitely drinking less water. Which makes sense since pure meat has a higher water content than kibble...

JAN

2008

Jennifer, have you researched giving bones to dogs? If they splinter they can lodge in their intestines, causing peritonitis and eventual very painful death. Even knuckle bones, which are considered safe. I would never ever give my dogs any kind of bones, nor chicken feet or turkey necks. This coming from personal experience. My mother lost two dogs as a result of feeding them bones. As for dogs eating their or other dogs poop, it is a throw back to prehistoric days when they would do that to survive. Coyotes still do that when food is scarce. Adding MSG (Accent) to the food will take care of that problem.

Terry - from what I've heard, uncooked bones don't splinter - it's the cooked ones that are dangerous. Dogs in the wild eat raw bones, don't they?

Jennifer, my mother fed uncooked knuckle bones to her dogs, as she had read they were safe. Dogs in the wild, as in truely wild dogs, are no longer related genetically to our domesticated dogs. When we took them in, over the course of thousands of years, we have bred out their ability to digest certain foods. As for the chicken feet, years ago when I was doing humane work, a dog was found with his paw in his in his mouth. He had gotten into chicken bones and one lodged in his throat. In a desperate attempt to dislodge it he tried putting his paw down his throat to pull it out. It didn't work and he died. I would imagine chicken feet with the claws would be another kind of deadly bone no dog should have.

I need to chime in and say that I would be afraid of the chicken paws as well. :/

"When we took them in, over the course of thousands of years, we have bred out their ability to digest certain foods. "

This part - well, that's kind of hard to prove and sounds to me like it's something put out by pet food manufacturers. Especially considering that "pet foods" are pretty recent in the food chain for dogs and cats. From what I understand, these manufactures often send representatives to lecture veterinary students on pet nutrition.

That's like sending the fox to teach you about hen house security, imho. LOL

Jennifer, Chicken paws?? Doesn't sound appealing to me but I guess the dogs like it!

JAN

2008

I agree about the pet food manufacturers propoganda. I'm rather hostile about the whole dog food industry, but that's a topic that can generate almost as much uncomfortable debate as abortion. Personally, I think commercial kibble is probably way more dangerous to our darling dogs' health than raw bones might be. I certainly know what happens to ME when I eat wheat or soy and it's miserable.

I do feed the dogs canned salmon and mackeral quite a bit and I think it's very good for them. I'll check out that Evo stuff, too.

I'm not sure the dogs get any nutrition out of chicken feet. Have the feet been sterilized? So many pet food companies aren't using beaks, feet, and feathers I guess the 'farmers' have to sell the parts somehow. Personally, the stuff I've seen Wal-Mart peddling for pets will never find it's way to my dogs. Real bones may or may not splinter (depends on the bone type/size and type of dog) but have been known to wear down a dogs teeth.

I stopped buying all Iams products when I read that a kitten was washed down the drain at their facility.

To Jennifer A. and everyone-if your dog eats and his abdomen immediately swells-could be bloat, get to a vet!

JAN

2008

Jennifer - actually, I agree about Wal-Mart. I don't eat the meat there because it has a lot of additives that make me sick. I probably won't do the chicken paws thing again, but it was kind of a novelty.

Poop Report... I went out into the yard today to check out the poop situation and it's much improved, as these things go. It's been several days since I went scooping and I didn't see much at all! Today, we're having hamburger and chicken livers, with a few chicken wings thrown in. Happy dogs, Happy mom.

MAR

2008

Updated poop report from Denver. For the first time since my entry above (2 months ago), I picked up poop in my back yard. Yep, this BARFing thing works. Took me all of five minutes - there was hardly anything there!

Just in case you cannot keep up the raw thing, EVO is a food that is just asclose to rw as possible to raw in a commercial food.

MAR

2008

Jennifer, out of curiosity does their breath seem better or worse from the raw food? I found the raw diet was too rich for my dogs, they wouldn't stop licking their paws the entire time they were on it and haven't touched them since I switched back to dry. Another note for anyone looking to improve their dogs coat or skin irritations we add Spirulina (a herbal powder bought at the health food store) to each serving and you wouldn't believe the shine and softness! Flax seed oil is also fantastic for short hair dogs like my sisters American Staffordshire.

Cheers, Emily~Celebrate Staging, Vancouver, BC

Interesting - my dachshund's breath is awful - the puppies' is fine. Did yours get better or worse?

JUN

2008

Update on the BARF diet...

A few days ago, I ran out of BARF food and dug out my emergency stash of organic kibble I used to feed the girls. They got kibble for just two meals - dinner and breakfast.

Observations:

1. Huge increase in poop volume

2. The dogs were incredibly thirsty for the next two days. On the BARF diet, they rarely drink - I'm told it's because they get plenty of fluid naturally from the food. I normally fill up the water bowl every few days, but after they ate the kibble, I filled it up every few HOURS.

3. The dogs were also incredibly lethargic; I wondered if they were sick until I remembered about the change back to kibble. They're back to normal again now.

OCT

2008

Hello, so, can they eat chicken feet? I thought if the dogs eat raw foods, they get used to it so they will want to attack you? I thought that cooked bones weaken dog bones..

And can they eat chocolate?

NOV

2008

Hi! I don't know you, but I found this post when I Googled BARF-chicken feet, as folks in my raw feeding group on Dogster rave about them....I recently started feeding them, and oh, my gosh, do the "kids" love them! Chicken Feet are a wonderful natural source of Glucosamine/Chondroitin....

The dogs just look gross eating them with those chicken "fingers" hanging out of their mouthes!!!

There is a great forum on Dogster.com called "Raw Feeding." It is full of info on this sort of stuff.

NOV

2008

Thanks for the comment! I haven't fed them the chicken paws in awhile, but now maybe I'll go get them some!! And thanks for the link to Dogster - I'll check it out.

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Jennifer Allan

Denver, CO

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Jennifer Allan, Inc.

Address: Denver, CO, 80212

Cell Phone: (303) 947-1335

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